This invention relates to dough mixes and particularly to a multi-part dough mix that is complete and requires no additional ingredients to make the complete dough and further is shelf-stable at room-temperature without chemical preservatives. The invention also encompasses a method for producing a room-temperature, shelf-stable dough mix capable of being combined to form a complete dough.
Homemade or scratch baked goods have traditionally been preferred for their low ingredient cost and absence of preservatives and chemicals sometimes used by commercial bakers. Baking from scratch is, however, time, labor, and skill intensive. Furthermore, scratch baked products are subject to inconsistencies in quality. Dough or batter mixes were developed to accommodate the home baker who does not have the patience or skill required for scratch baking. However, such mixes have always required extra ingredients such as eggs, water, shortening or butter, or milk. Thus these prior mixes, although less labor and skill intensive than scratch baking, still required substantial labor and skill and were similarly subject to inconsistencies in the final baked products. Complete doughs have also been available to the home baker in the form of frozen or refrigerated dough. Although such frozen or refrigerated doughs were much more convenient than scratch baking and prior dough mixes, such complete doughs were relatively expensive due to the handling and refrigeration costs. Also, refrigeration and freezing may change the character of the dough or its constituents.
The same options available to the home baker were also available to commercial bakers. The commercial baker could either produce a dough from scratch, use incomplete mixes having to add ingredients, or pay the high cost of complete refrigerated or frozen doughs. The problems with these prior options were the same problems encountered by the home baker except on a larger scale.
Although many of the ingredients used in various types of doughs are shelf-stable at room temperatures by themselves, combining the ingredients causes bacterial or fungal growth and spoilage. For example, flour molds very quickly at room temperature when exposed to water. Baking soda and other leavening agents release CO.sub.2 when exposed to water at room temperature. Also, egg solids and milk solids spoil very quickly when exposed to water at room temperatures. Even shortening and various types of sweeteners may spoil at room temperatures when exposed to water. The presence of water in complete doughs, therefore, has heretofore made mixes for complete doughs impossible without refrigeration or the addition of chemical preservatives.